The Little Prince
The Little Prince (French: Le Petit Prince) is a classic, children's story written and illustrated by the French author and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery. It was written during the Second World War, whilst Saint-Exupery was living in the United States, and was first published in 1943. The book has been translated into 190 different languages and has sold more than 80 million copies. Although it is a children's story, The Little Prince has enough depth to be interesting for adults too. A major theme in the story is that adults are foolish and fail to understand what is important. This theme begins in the dedication to Saint-Exupery's friend Leon Werth. Saint-Exupery apolgizes to his child readers for dedicating the book to an adult, offering excuses including "he can understand everything, even children's books" before finally changing the dedication to read, "To Leon Werth when he was a little boy." Plot Introduction The story begins with the narrator saying that as a child he read a book about jungles from which he learnt abou boa constrictors. He was inspired to draw his first picture, which showed a boa constrictor that had swallowed an elephant. However, all the adults that he showed it to thought it was a picture of a hat. The narrator drew a second picture showing a cross-section of a boa constrictor with an elephant inside it. All of the adults that he showed it to told him to give up drawing. He did, grew up and, like Antoine de Saint-Exupery himself, grew up to be a pilot. Many years later the narrator's plane crashed in the Sahara desert. One day he was approached by a child, the little prince, who said to him, "Please, draw me a sheep." The narrator says that he can only draw one thing and draws the picture that all adults had mistaken for a hat. The little prince immediately recognizes it as an elephant swallowed by a boa constrictor, and insists on getting a picture of a sheep. The narrator draws several sheep that the little prince is not happy with. Eventually he draws a box with air-holes saying, "The sheep you want is inside". The little prince is delighted with it. The narrator discovers that the little prince is from another planet, a very small of which he is the only inhabitant, the narrator believes that it is Asteroid B-612. The little prince's home planet is about the size of a house and has three small volcanoes, one of them active. The little prince spends most of his time uprooting baobab trees, which would quickly take over the planet if he did not get rid of them. One day the little prince finds that a flower has grown on his planet. He falls in love with the flower but the vain flower does not return his love. The little prince decides to leave his small planet to see the rest of the universe. The narrator believes that he used migrating birds to fly to different planets. The little prince's journey to Earth Before arriving on Earth the little prince visits six small planets each one inhabited by only one man. The people that the little prince enconters are: *'The King' who says that he reigns over all of the stars, although he is unable to command them to do anything. He has no human subjects, the only other inhabitant of his planet being an old rat. *'The Conceited Man' who wishes for admirers and will not listen to anything which is not a compliment. *'The Drunkard' who drinks to forget, wants to forget that he is ashamed and is ashamed because he drinks. *'The Businessman' who claims that he owns all of the stars, saying that kings do not own anything, they only reign. *'The Lamplighter' his planet revolves very quickly meaning that it quickly changes from night to day and back again. Consequently, the lamplighter is constantly lighting and extinguishing the lamp. *'The Geographer' whose planet is larger than those of the other five. The little prince asks him if the planet has rivers or mountains. The Geographer says that he does not know because he is not an explorer. He refuses to leave his desk and explore but says that he would distrust what any explorer told him. The little prince says that his planet has three volcanoes and a flower. He is told that geographers do not consider flowers to be a feature of a planet because they do not last forever. the little prince is shocked to learn that his flower will die. The little prince on Earth Arriving on Earth, the first creature that the little prince encounters is a snake. The snake tells the little prince that he could send him back to his home planet. He says that when he bites people they usually return to the dust from which they came but the prince from another world would return there. The little prince comes across some rosebushes and is dismayed to find out that the flower on his planet is not unique but is in fact very common. The first friend that the little prince makes on earth is a fox. However, befriending him is a slow process becasue the fox says that he is wild and needs to be domesticated. The prince eventually learns that the Earth has human inhabitants too but finds them foolish. The conclusion Adaptations External links *[http://www.lepetitprince.com Le Petit Prince official website] (in French). * Category:Childrens Books Category:Classic